As we know Ebola the deadly virus is spread through the body fluids of an effected one, so a precaution is needed to stay away from Ebola contamination.
It is said that Ebola antidote is not invented still now to cure the Ebola affected people.
But as many of us know that Ebola is first spread by the Fruit bats, the vector of Ebola virus.
We all know fruit bats are mammal like us, and if these fruit bats are not affected from Ebola, then is their any chance to get Ebola antibodies from the fruit bats' serum?
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Deepraj_Das
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It probably isn’t a good idea to transfer Ebola antibodies from fruit bats to humans as fruit bat antibodies are not likely to be compatible with the human immune system and may induce a serious response. However, you may have heard on the news that efforts have been made to transfer Ebola antibodies from a person who has survived an Ebola infection to a person who is currently fighting an Ebola infection. So far, this strategy has only been carried out on individuals so it is hard for us to properly assess how successful this has been as a treatment. In theory, it should help to treat Ebola patients; however this theory now needs to be tested in properly controlled clinical trials.
That means what I said is in hypothetical state, if I am not wrong. But we can sequence the gene responsible to generate the Ebola antibodies, and compare it with human genome to know the percentage of common base pairs similar to human genome.
Then we can customize it with specific promoter and operator region.
Antibody transfer may not not be done because tissue or proteins of that particular serum antibody of 1st one was rejected by the second victim of Ebola, similar like what happens if we don't take precaution before tissue grafting or skin grafting. So, it may be done by gene therapy.
And we need to know whether Ebola antibodies are poly clonal or mono clonal, to know the epitope structure of Ebola viral antigen.
Interesting post Deepraj_Das... Ebola looks like a horrific disease but it's far away and not affecting Western societies while the African continent is being ravaged by it.
Viruses are by their very nature very difficult to treat and easily spread. Your hypothesis that a vaccine could be developed from immuned reservoir fruit-bats is an interesting one but I expect has been fully explored as this virus has been around a while. The problem is likely the very different physiology between bats and humans. If we had an immuned primate species that might be different? Experimenting on primates and apes is very controversial and taboo now though (even illegal in UK except by special license).
I have studied viruses as pathogens at university level but I'm not a qualified scientist so my understanding is fairly rudimentary but I do have an interest. My understanding is, a virus usually has to go several mutations before it can cross from animals to humans and that this is quite rare in nature, but does happen (HIV/AIDs being an example of a primate-to-human cross-over and also Avian Flu another).
I suspect, the virus strain which is harmless in bats couldn't easily be adapted to humans or be developed into a cross-over virus vaccine.
Like most virus infections, prevention is better than cure. This virus has spread rapidly in a very poor part of the world where diseases eradicted in the West are common still. I think it highlights the need for more aid and resources, better education and healthcare in this part of the world. We as a planet have to address that problem and pool our resources.
You are right but to uproot this viral disease we need to know the morphological or genetic change of Ebola in human serum, taking samples from both fruit bat serum and Ebola affected human serum. Because after the dead of Ebola affected people the virus will be conserved at the non-living state or in any other host cell suitable for it.
So, we need to destroy it and study more. That's why we have to start from an edge. Do you have any suggestion, where from to start it?
I am not a scientist but completed M.Sc in Biochemistry. I have no facility to research but what I can is to get and give ideas.
I would study the virus genetics as a starting point, both in human form and the fruit bats and see what you can find out. Also look in detail at how the virus hijacks cells in humans and how the process works and if you could block, inhibit or slow down that process. I know some people can survive Ebola with proper care. So that's another avenue to research..i.e what is the prognosis for infected persons, survival rates, treatment options etc. Are certain people/age groups more at risk, or perhaps more likely to survive with proper care? Survival rates vary greatly so that's an interesting line of research to find out why.
Can you identify any patterns or learn anything from this data?
You're way more qualified than I am on this subject. I honestly wouldn't know where to start in developing a vaccine. I only studied bacteria and viruses as pathogens at a very basic level in Uni. We didn't cover developing vaccines in much detail or the genetics side involved in altering viruses..., only how virus work and their genetic makeup, and how they use host cells to replicate etc. In a normal healthy person though, the body should be able to eradicate or contain and neutralise a virus by producing antibodies to it.
Understanding the genetics side of the Ebola virus and antibodies is going to be the key point here I think. It is a RNA type virus, not DNA. That means it has the potential to be manipulated or mutate much more easily which is worrying (stronger strains could emerge, or ones that spread more easily, Ebola has been weaponized in the past too), but also possibly helpful in developing weaker strains and antibodies/vaccine, whichever way you look at it.
I think you have to be careful though if you're doing any lab tests or experiments, with Ebola virus it is infectous and transmitted even from dead hosts or body fluids.
A virus isn't an independent living organism in the true sense like bacterium. It's just a string of genetic material that needs living host cells and uses the host body's cell processes in order to replicate, that's why common viruses like cold, flu or warts can be transmitted so easily from body fluids or dead but infected skin cells picked up by a new host who comes into contact with them in the case of warts.
Anti-viral drugs are being tested and used in treatment with some success, but research is still ongoing and these drugs are usually very expensive and will really only slow the infection down and help the symptoms.
Another line of research is looking at extracting antibodies to the virus in surviving people, I think some research is persuing that line of treatment in Thailand at present.
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